Nifty, Sensex tank; Tata Motors go down 2.6 per cent

Mumbai: Earnings-hit market had very little to look forward to on Thursday, although January inflation numbers raised hopes that WPI inflation will go down in fiscal 2013.

The list of disappointment include State Bank of India, Dr Reddy's, IVRCL, Educomp, Shipping Corporation of India and IFCI, all of which failed the street with their quarterly numbers. The sell-off that followed forced the 50-stock Nifty to close near the low point of the day.

Tata Motors, which declared its third quarter numbers after the trades were closed for the day, came in below expectations. The stock had closed down 2.6 per cent in anticipation of bad results. Maruti Suzuki was the other auto stock which lost in trades. The stock closed down over 3 per cent, followed by Hero MotoCorp which closed down 1.5 per cent.

Sensex closed down 139.94 points at 19468.14, and the Nifty shut shop 36 points down at 5896.95.

The BSE benchmark Sensex closed down 139.94 points at 19468.14, and the Nifty shut shop 36 points down at 5896.95.

Index heavyweight Hindustan Lever was the yop gainer on the indices, rising over 2 per cent. Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank and Coal India were other notable gainers. On the losing side, Bharti Airtel suffred the most with 4 per cent cut, followed by Larsen, Seimens, Wipro, Power Grid and BPCL. Each lost between 3-4 per cent from its previous closing figure.

Indian InfoTech was the biggest winner on the Midcap index, swelling 7 per cent. DB Realty, Page Industries, Suzlon and Kirloskar Oil also moved up between 3-4 per cent.